SOURCE: "Marchenkritik in the Context of European Romanticism," in The Brothers Grimm and Their Critics: Folktales and the Quest for Meaning, Ohio University Press, 1992, pp. 181-214.

In the following chapter from her book The Brothers Grimm and Their Critics, Kamenetsky considers the response to the tales in the context of the Romantic movement and the Grimms ' broader interest in folklore, including the folklore of other nations

Folklore and the Middle Ages

During the Romantic movement, the critical reception of the Kinder- und Hausmärchen in Germany and abroad coincided with a new appreciation of nature, myths, and the medieval past. Being inspired by Rousseau, Johann Gottfried Herder had prepared the ground for this trend by urging all nations to search out their native folklore and traditions. In folk songs, folktales, myths, and legends, one believed to see remnants of a Golden Age in which people had still...